Aditya Sinha: Hey USA, Trump is your president

A day before completing 100 days in office Donald Trump addressed the National Rifle Association an organisation that had given him fullthroated support PicAFPI have mostly been visiting coastal America where most people have indignantly told me the same thing Not my President The brave exception is my childhood friend Ravis 78yearold father an old immigrant from Mumbais Sindhi real estate community who called his own son a Hillarylover as if poor Ravi was standing in queue outside the defeated presidential candidates bedroom door he is an unabashed TrumpianI went to rural New Hampshire and Correia another childhood friends wife repeatedly declared Not my President I pointed out that while she may have not voted for him he now represented the entire country but she instead began devising ways of ridding the planet of President Donald Trump In San Diego family friend Linda said Not my President she was irked with Trumps rudeness towards German Chancellor Angela MerkelIn Brooklyn my mothers physiotherapist declared Not my President and then let loose a string of unprintable thoughts Sigh If only Indians who didnt like Prime Minister Narendra Modi had the courage to make a similar declarationOn Trumps 100th day in office on Saturday many Americans I imagine were relieved that the world was still in one piece A day earlier Trump was addressing the National Rifle Association an extreme rightwing outfit that had given fullthroated support to his campaign He climbed the stage and even if he wasnt the biggest a to become US president he certainly had one of the biggest aes of a US presidentHe had nothing much to brag about by way of achievement during his 100 days other than how he beat all predictions to win the election back in November which even Modi doesnt do perhaps Trump is not thinking of future election campaigns During an interview to Reuters on the occasion Trump lamented how being the president was harder work than he had anticipated much to the allround dismay of all Americans This was certainly an unprecedented achievement complaining about being the most powerful man on EarthNo wonder the American media is everyday screaming some nonsense or the other about North Korea Trump in his interview spoke of the possibility of a major major conflict with this nation Imagine a country that lost 10 per cent of its population due to the great famine of 1997 this is currently a threat to a country where official statistics say that 38 per cent of Americans are obese and this includes three out of four adult males The emaciated are a threat to a nation of fattiesWhile I was in New Hampshire in midApril my high school friend Emory was seriously discussing with another gentleman the possibility of Trump putting troops in the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea It does not seem to strike anyone that the South Koreans who have an election coming up dont want all this wartalk It also doesnt seem to matter that the North Korean ballistic missile tests keep failing one after the otherMost surreal is that just months ago nobody in America outside of the national security establishment gave a rats a about North Korea Campaign rhetoric comprised the terrible terrible deal with Iran about Russia about NATO and about China It is dizzying that all of a sudden even my friend Ravi after a vodka or two is asking me about the prospects of war with North Korea What a distraction it would be for America Another lovely warMy University pal Gillian may say Not my President but what she and other Americans dont seem to realize is that outside of America and its Wall of Comfort or its Wall of Arrogance it has so many walls that a physical wall with Mexico is only a logical next step the rest of the planet regards Donald Trump as the very caricature of America ndash a country that is earnest about saving the environment but kills millions of trees to wipe its bumsA country where a white man growing a beard is a hipster but a brown man growing a beard is a terrorist a country that dwells on newer and newer types of cuisine as if obesity was just a minor footnote in evolution while it tries out newer and newer bombs by dropping them on the different disposable parts of the planet all in the name of wiping out the bogeyman named ISISPerhaps thats whats in store for North Koreans being the guinea pigs for another Mother of All Bombs in the name of dislodging a nucleararmed boy dictator Trump looks talks and acts the part of the Ugly AmericanIn that sense even if on his 100th day the Gallup poll shows his approval ratings at 39 per cent 53 per cent actively disapprove Donald Trump is very much every Americans presidentAditya Sinhas crime novel The CEO Who Lost His Head is available now He tweets autumnshadeSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom